Tweet
Ok, not necessarily a "build" as the engine was fitted by Geoff but thats not to say I just got in it a drove away.
I bought a Watsons frame about 2 years ago but never got to actually doing the conversion, mainly a recalcitrant hillclimber that yearned for every bit of my spare time so I decided that the only way it'd get done in the near future was to send the car to Geoff to get the engine fitted. Also meant no messing around looking for bracket "a" and cable "b" etc, as we dont have the luxury of scrappies etc in Jersey that we can raid.
The car was fairly well stripped out when I sent it away, basically a rolling shell with bits and pieces still bolted on. I supplied the wheels and my frame kit.
Car was trailered by a local firm to Wakefield only for Geoff to inform me that they'd tied a ratchet strap thro grill and around subframe to tie it down, bending the front panel
After about a month the car was due to be picked up but Geoff had a problem with gearbox being noisy. It was stripped and rebuilt but was still noisy so in the end Geoff had to swap it for another box (I was awkward as I wanted an LSD box)
The car arrived back with an old seat Geoff chucked in and added to bill was "Front number plate - £10" - in my stripping frenzy
I'd removed the plate not thinking he'd need it for the road test etc.
Spent a week bolting interior back in and all the brightwork and found :-
- Aftermarket bumpers are rubbish, I ended up reshaping them by crushing them in a workmate to get them to even line up.
- I HATE ELECTRIC WINDOWS, ended up removing the W&P kit the car had and went back to the manual winders
- 2nd gear was where the front right hand corner of the passenger seat wanted to be, mounted seat right back in last adjuster and on full extension back so lever now rests against passenger seat
Took car for quick test and ended up going sideways when brakes locked up. Both rear cylinders had burst - fitted new cylinders
Car was trying to steer from rear, found rear LH wheel had excessive toe-in, readjusted brackets
Rear LH wheel rubbed on compression of suspension, spent about 3 days on this checking wheel arches, even top damper mount against fuel tank, eventually found tyre was able to touch lip in wheel arch were boot floor, arch and valance back plate meet - few whacks with rubber faced mallet cured that. Strange there is not same problem on RH side
Perhaps a clue to some misalignment somewhere ??
Got suspension set up and tracking done - was surprised to find none of this was done by Watsons, at least I thought the tracking would be set
Only problem now seems that there is oil perhaps coming from between head and block under vtec solenoid. Took car to local Honda dealer today to have them look at it (was slightly peeved that guy didn't seem to notice the engine was in a Mini ) He checked the solenoid as apparantly the o-ring behind valave hardens and cracks then leaks but it doesn't seem like it, he reckons its the head gasket 
He says he's never had a Honda come in that needed a head gasket doing
Bad luck ? excuse me whilst I go walk under a ladder whilst smashing a mirror
On plus side car goes well, but map need looking at as it stalls occasionally and struggles to start and it doesn't feel like its giving its all on full acceleration but add that to the "to do" list to !!
I bought a Watsons frame about 2 years ago but never got to actually doing the conversion, mainly a recalcitrant hillclimber that yearned for every bit of my spare time so I decided that the only way it'd get done in the near future was to send the car to Geoff to get the engine fitted. Also meant no messing around looking for bracket "a" and cable "b" etc, as we dont have the luxury of scrappies etc in Jersey that we can raid.
The car was fairly well stripped out when I sent it away, basically a rolling shell with bits and pieces still bolted on. I supplied the wheels and my frame kit.
Car was trailered by a local firm to Wakefield only for Geoff to inform me that they'd tied a ratchet strap thro grill and around subframe to tie it down, bending the front panel
After about a month the car was due to be picked up but Geoff had a problem with gearbox being noisy. It was stripped and rebuilt but was still noisy so in the end Geoff had to swap it for another box (I was awkward as I wanted an LSD box)
The car arrived back with an old seat Geoff chucked in and added to bill was "Front number plate - £10" - in my stripping frenzy
I'd removed the plate not thinking he'd need it for the road test etc.Spent a week bolting interior back in and all the brightwork and found :-
- Aftermarket bumpers are rubbish, I ended up reshaping them by crushing them in a workmate to get them to even line up.
- I HATE ELECTRIC WINDOWS, ended up removing the W&P kit the car had and went back to the manual winders
- 2nd gear was where the front right hand corner of the passenger seat wanted to be, mounted seat right back in last adjuster and on full extension back so lever now rests against passenger seat
Took car for quick test and ended up going sideways when brakes locked up. Both rear cylinders had burst - fitted new cylinders
Car was trying to steer from rear, found rear LH wheel had excessive toe-in, readjusted brackets
Rear LH wheel rubbed on compression of suspension, spent about 3 days on this checking wheel arches, even top damper mount against fuel tank, eventually found tyre was able to touch lip in wheel arch were boot floor, arch and valance back plate meet - few whacks with rubber faced mallet cured that. Strange there is not same problem on RH side
Perhaps a clue to some misalignment somewhere ??Got suspension set up and tracking done - was surprised to find none of this was done by Watsons, at least I thought the tracking would be set
Only problem now seems that there is oil perhaps coming from between head and block under vtec solenoid. Took car to local Honda dealer today to have them look at it (was slightly peeved that guy didn't seem to notice the engine was in a Mini
) He checked the solenoid as apparantly the o-ring behind valave hardens and cracks then leaks but it doesn't seem like it, he reckons its the head gasket He says he's never had a Honda come in that needed a head gasket doing Bad luck ? excuse me whilst I go walk under a ladder whilst smashing a mirror
On plus side car goes well, but map need looking at as it stalls occasionally and struggles to start and it doesn't feel like its giving its all on full acceleration but add that to the "to do" list to !!
Matt offered to have a look at it and as far as I'm concerned has made a 1st class job of it - I know he had some problems as the engine and rad sit quite high in the Wastsons frame so had to mod the underside of the bonnet for clearance. Can happily recommend 16vMiniShop for all your 16v Mini needs 
)
Comment